By comparison, Colorado State sold 1,500 tickets to its fans for last month's home opener at Bryant-Denny Stadium.

Alabama sold out its first two games of the season. Alabama's 49-0 victory over Western Carolina last year was the first non-sellout of the Nick Saban era.

On his radio show Thursday, Saban implored fans to provide a similar atmosphere for Saturday's game as it did the previous week against Ole Miss.

"It's important that we build on that momentum," Saban said. "I know nobody's probably excited about this game and the opponent that we're playing. Forget about that. I'm asking our team to play to a standard, compete to a standard.

"it doesn't matter who the competition is or what the score is and I think we need to do the same thing to continue to build momentum as a team, which includes our fans and everybody that's involved with our team."